1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a method of printing panel material with a printed image, whereby the panel material is moved from a feeding station into a printing station in which the printed image is applied and from which it is fed onwards in the feed direction by means of a conveyor system.
2. Prior Art
Patent specifications EP 0 802 136 B1 respectively DE 697 05 987 T2 disclose a system and a method of decorating profiled strips. To this end, the system for decorating the profiled strips comprises a station for separating the individual strips, at which a conveyor is disposed in the conveying direction for then conveying the strips onwards. Units are provided at the separating station for holding a plurality of strips in a defined position in which the strips are moved apart from one another in parallel and disposed so that their longitudinal orientation lies parallel with the forward feed direction of the conveyor. The separating station also has other units for transferring the strips to the subsequent conveyor once they have assumed the defined position. A guide station for the strips is disposed in the displacement path of the strips moved by the conveyor in the operating direction upstream of the printing station, and this guide station has spacer guides which are designed to co-operate with the strips in the region of their longitudinal edges. Consequently, the strips slide between these guides and are forced to assume their defined position prior to entering the printing station. Also for positioning the individual strips, stops are also provided in the region of the guide station, which can be displaced from a position extending into the transport path into a position outside of the transport path. These stops position the individual strips by reference to the rotatable printing drum used to apply the printing ink to the surface of the individual strips. The individual strips are therefore printed in groups of several strips disposed adjacent to one another and a separate positioning operation is needed for the strips to be printed before running every printing operation.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,401,012 A describes a document feed mechanism for a copier, comprising a separator device and a conveyor system for the separated sheets or documents. The separator device comprises separator rollers and conveyor rollers and the separator rollers feed documents individually from a stack to the conveyor rollers. The latter then transfer the separated sheet to the subsequent conveyor system, and two respective documents are positioned in 2 in 1 mode edge to edge one after the other and deposited on the contact glass or document glass for the subsequent reading and copying operation on a single sheet. This is done by the separator rollers, which separate a first sheet from the stack and convey it to the conveyor rollers. They convey the first separated sheet until what is the rear edge as viewed in the transport direction is detected by means of a sensor. This signal triggers the separation of a second sheet from the stack. As soon as the sensor detects what is the front edge of the second sheet as viewed in the transport direction, the separating process and transport of the first sheet are interrupted. The position of the second sheet remains unchanged between the conveyor rollers until the first sheet has been moved in the direction opposite the transport direction by means of the conveyor system so that it abuts edge to edge with the second sheet. The two sheet edge to edge are then moved by the conveyor system to the predefined position on the contact glass or document glass. After the reading and copying operation, the original documents are conveyed onwards away from the reading area disposed in the copying position without any change.
Patent specification DE 196 25 470 A1 discloses a method and a device for conveying objects, whereby a plurality of objects is fed by a feed conveyor to an adjoining conveyor. From the adjoining conveyor, the individual objects are transferred to an accumulating conveyor so that a sufficient number of objects is always supplied to a separator conveyor in readiness for separating them subsequently. From the accumulating conveyor, the objects disposed one after the other are transferred to the separator conveyor separately at specific distances.
Patent specification DE 1 043 208 discloses an overlapping device for panel metal processing plants. In this instance, the panel to be separated is transferred from a first conveyor to another conveyor disposed downstream of it. As this happens, the conveying speed of the first conveyor is selected so that it is higher than that of the second conveyor. As the separated panel is transferred from the first conveyor to the second conveyor, a plate, the position of which can be adjusted, is provided at the overhanging end of the first conveyor belt and is moved above the inlet end of the second conveyor belt, thereby ensuring that a subsequent panel does not make contact with the rear edge of the panel in front and instead, the front and rear edges of the panel overlap correctly. To this end, the adjustable plate is designed so that it can be displaced automatically with the aid of a control system, which operates as a function of the speed of the first conveyor belt.